


The Month of Ben

by SaintHeretical



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Awkward Luke, Babysitting, F/M, Family Drama, Kid Fic, No underage, Teenage Crush, bb Ben Solo, cloning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-20 08:06:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8242288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintHeretical/pseuds/SaintHeretical
Summary: Kylo Ren is captured by the Resistance, however during the scuffle he is heavily injured and falls into a coma. His organs are failing, his mind is trapped, and with him lie the secrets of the First Order. Out of options, Leia petitions for a highly controversial and experimental treatment to save her son’s life; the commission of a fully functioning clone, grown in a lab, whose organs will be harvested once it reaches maturity. It seems simple enough, but with tensions running high alongside a rapidly aging child, can the Resistance keep their bearings long enough to retrieve the information from Kylo's deteriorating mind?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an episode of Star Trek Enterprise called "Similitude."  
> It seems kind of silly to have to clarify, but a disclaimer: By writing this fic, I in no way condone the idea of organ harvesting, genetic engineering, or cloning. This is a work of fiction. Thank you, and have a nice day.

_She sees a door._

_Here it stands, amidst the swirling sands and molten lava, surprisingly plain and unassuming. It stands just a head taller than her, made of cold durasteel and rough hewn wood, a marriage of the new and the traditional. It’s simpler than she expected, its unremarkable exterior giving no hint of the secrets held beneath._

_She wants to touch it._

_As she raises her hand, she hears a voice in the distance. It’s a man’s voice, high, but still weathered with age. She can’t make out the words, but he seems scared, or angry, or frantic, and he seems to be yelling right at her. Her hand stills, and the voice stops._

_She’s confused._

_The door stands there, beckoning her. She’s been searching for days, crawling across the desolate wasteland in search of something, anything, any sign of inhabitation or hint of life. Now she’s here, at the door, every part of her screaming to touch it, convinced that this is it. This is what she’s been searching for._

_Then everything changes._

_The smoke and sand meld into lush grass and tall trees. The smell of sulphur is replaced with salt and petrichor. She can hear water in the distance, birds, the wind through the leaves. There’s sunlight and flowers of every colour imaginable. Something deep inside of her comes up with a name for this place: Naboo. It’s beautiful._

_The door remains._

_Despite the change of surroundings, the door is the same; sterile, stark, heavy. It’s freestanding and when she circles it she notes that there is nothing on the other side that can be seen with the naked eye. The secrets can only be revealed by opening it._

_She extends her hand to the knob-_

Rey jolts out of her meditative trance suddenly, her body jerking like it had been slapped. It takes her a second to realize that she _had_ been slapped, by Luke specifically. He’s squatted down right in front of her, robes pooling around his feet, his hand still poised in front of her face.

“Sorry for that,” he whispers. His face says otherwise.

Grumbling, she stretches her arms above her head and untangles her legs from the lotus position she’s been holding for the past three hours. “I was almost there. You pulled me out at literally the worst time.”

“That’s your opinion. You’re wrong, but it’s your opinion.” Dr. Kalonia walks over and extends an arm to Rey, who hoists herself upright.

“Ugh,” the younger woman groans, holding her head.

The doctor chuckles and leads Rey over to a bed. “Take it easy, girl. Rest and get some food into your body.”

Rey frowns. “No, you don’t understand!” she says frantically, her voice raising in pitch. “I was just about there! I’d found the portal and my hand was almost on the knob. We could have had everything!”

“You don’t know that,” Luke says, his voice calm as always. “But we had to pull you out. You almost died in there.”

She squints, her face twisted with confusion. Her body feels no worse for wear, and her headache seems to already be passing. “What?”

Dr. Kalonia wheels over the machine that’s been monitoring her vitals during meditation. “Look,” she instructs.

Rey follows the doctor’s index finger as it traces the line of her heartbeat, then the one that indicates her brain activity.  There’s two sharp declines; one that swoops low before gradually recovering, and then another, right at the end, that gets dangerously close to flat lining before being abruptly cut off.

“The door,” she breathes. “You called me back the first time.”

“I did.” Luke comes up behind her, his eyes following the lines on the screen. “I got through to you once, but something was different the second time. You weren’t responding to my mental probes or my voice, so I had to resort to physicality.”

“The environment changed,” she explains. “I wasn’t on the volcanic planet anymore. It shifted to a green space with forest and lakes, and I guess I just got distracted. I’m sorry, Master.”

“I understand, Rey,” he says. “The mind is a very dangerous thing, constantly shifting and deceiving us. I don’t blame you. No one does.”

She huffs and leans back against the bed frame. “But I blame myself. We were so close this time, and you had to pull me out because I was too weak.”

“It wasn’t worth the risk.”

“Okay, but maybe next time-“

“Rey.” Luke’s face is deathly solemn. He reaches over and squeezes her shoulder reassuringly. “There isn’t going to be a next time.”

She gapes at him, incredulous. “You’re not going to let me go in again?”

“Not just you. None of us are going to try anymore, it’s too risky.”

“Not even the General?” Her eyes narrow, challenging his stoic stare. “She’s not going to give up, you know.”

“She’s not giving up.” Luke’s eyes twinkle. “And I highly doubt anyone knows my sister better than I do.”

Rey crosses her arms in front of her, fuming. ‘ _Project: Nightmare_ ,’ as the council has dubbed it, has been her life for the past two weeks, and now with one word from Luke it’s over. “But you need me,” she says, her voice pleading. “Even the General can’t connect as strongly as I can. You both need me to patch you in.”

Luke shakes his head. “I’m sorry, padawan. It’s not worth it.”

Her hands clench. “How can you say that? If we had this information even a week ago, we could have prevented so many deaths! Jess could still be with us-“ Her voice breaks. “How can you just be okay with this?”

His face falls. “You misunderstand me, Rey,” he sighs. “I’m not okay with this at all. I’m not okay with the deaths that we’ve incurred, or the needless loss or the conflict. I weep for the loss, I promise you I do but, at the end of the day I must move on. I am a Jedi, and I cannot allow my personal bias to colour my duty.”

Sweeping his robe around him, Luke crosses the medical bay to stand in front of the leftmost bed . He checks the vitals of its occupant, his eyes skimming over the lines and charts and rows of numbers.

Rey joins him, her brow wrinkled. “Any changes?”

“Nothing unusual.” He points to a slight dip in the patient’s heart rate. “This correlates with the first time you approached ‘the door,’ as you’ve described it, and this is the second incidence.” He indicates a marginally lower divot in the otherwise steady line. “I appears as though he was in no danger of waking during the entire process.”

“Good.”

Rey surveys the patient. Even after this time, it still jars her to see him this way; naked and swathed in bleached hospital sheets, his face bare and innocent in sleep. She reaches out her hand to graze his bare shoulder and just slightly pushes back in.

 _Green. Trees. Petrichor. Sulphur. Freckled skin, hazel eyes, flushed cheeks, falling stars, pain, pain, PAIN._  


	2. 30

_TWO WEEKS AGO_

It’s a cold day on the planet Ison when Kylo Ren is brought in.

It‘s not a planned mission, staffed to the hilt with a squadron of the very best fighter pilots. They didn’t plan it, strategize it, figure out all of the details and contingency plans, and there was no back up. It’s brutal and messy, three ships against one.

Jedi Master Luke Skywalker is scheduled to attend peace talks with the Nothoiins on Burnin Konn, halfway across the Anoat Sector. In the interest of efficiency, he requests the _Millennium Falcon_ and Finn, nothing else.  Naturally, the General allowed it, with one concession: two x-wings, helmed by Poe Dameron and Snap Wexley as a ‘protective garrison.’

“ _It’s a nice day to go for a drive_ ,” Poe says into his radio as they depart from the station. “ _I’m not complaining_.”

Snap laughs. “ _Same as every other day, as far as I can tell_.”

Finn grins over at Luke, who’s hunched down in the pilot’s seat. “What a couple of clowns, hey Master Skywalker?”

“Reminds me of Han and Chewie,” the Jedi replies, his eyes wistful as he stares out into the black emptiness of space.

He flicks a couple of switches and pulls some levers. “I’m ready to engage the hyperdrive,” he announces to the other two pilots. “Stand by for my signal.”

“ _Copy that_.”

“ _Ready when you are, Master Luke._ ”

“Three. Two. One, and go!”

Finn braces himself, watching the stars stretch and warp around them as the ship leaps forward into hyperspace. Luke sighs and clambers out of his seat.

“You can take over for a bit, okay? I need some time to meditate before the talks.”

“No problem, Master Luke.” Finn slumps into the pilot’s spot and checks all the gauges. “Everything looks good. I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”

Luke nods and ducks out of the cockpit. He stretches out all of the kinks in his neck and back, then folds himself into a meditative posture on the floor next to the old dejarik table.

“This was the ship that took me into space for the first time,” he muses to Finn. “At least the first time I was aware of. Later on I learned that Leia and I had actually been born off-world, on Polis Massa, and I was brought to Tatooine as an infant.”

“What’s it like?” Finn asks. “Tatooine, that is.”

Luke chuckles. “Sandy. Hot. Crawling with Hutts and Jawas and Tusken Raiders.”

“Sandy and hot. Like Jakku?”

“Worse. Tatooine has two suns.”

Finn scoffs and shakes his head. “Worse than Jakku. No wonder you were eager to get away. I’ve been to at least thirty different planets, and none of them can even touch Jakku as the worst in my mind. ”

Luke hums to himself, his eyes already drifting off. “I should take you some time. To Tatooine, that is. You’ll gain a whole new appreciation for anywhere else in the galaxy.”

Shaking his head, Finn turns back to the flashing dials and switches before him. He’s admittedly not much of a pilot, but even he can tell that the _Falcon_ ’s dash belongs in a museum, not in active spaceflight. He runs his fingers over a panel of glowing green lights and imagines, for a second, that he’s legendary war hero and smuggler Han Solo, off to save his bumbling pal Luke Skywalker from a band of travelling pirates.

His daydreams are interrupted by a sharp intake of breath behind him.

“Wait a second.”

Finn’s hand stills on the navigational controls. “What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

Luke scrambles inelegantly up from the floor. There’s a new wrinkle etched on his face deep between the eyes, and Finn can feel the air in the ship crackle with supernatural energy. The Jedi Master takes his place in the pilot’s seat, flipping switches with practiced precision.  “Get in the turret,” he commands. “We’ve got company.”

*

The first pang of panic hits Rey while she’s meditating like a bolt of thunder. She doubles over, clutching her abdomen as the adrenaline and nausea sweep through her veins. She feels scared, frustrated, angry, and her first thought is of her master, travelling through the system with only Snap and Poe for protection.

She bursts into the council chambers, startling the group of higher ups that are finishing their meeting. The General rises slowly and asks, “Rey. What’s wrong?”

“It’s Master Luke,” she says in between gasps. “And Finn and Poe and Snap. They’re in trouble.”

Leia frowns. She calms herself and grasps the light inside of her, the one that’s linked to her brother thousands of light years away. “Luke is fine,” she responds. “He’s excited about something, but he’s not in danger.” Her eyes narrow. “Yet.”

Rey groans as a fresh wave of panic washes over her. “But I feel him,” she pants. Sweat breaks out over her brow.

Leia walks over to her and urges her to sit as the other leaders tap frantically on their data pads. “Any word?” she asks over her shoulder.

Admiral Statura shakes his head. “Nothing in from communications.”

“Yet.”

He nods. “Yet.”

The commanding officers dismiss themselves, throwing looks of concern at the two women crouched on the floor. Jedi business was none of their concern most of the time, but they can tell from the dark look on the General’s face that something big and unexplainable may be happening.

Leia takes in a deep breath, steadying herself even as Rey shakes next to her. Finally serene, she folds herself down into a lotus, urging the younger woman to mirror her.

Though she’s never been officially been trained as a Jedi, she’s always felt in tune to the Force, to her brother especially, but Han as well, and Ben, before everything went south. Drawing on her well of knowledge, she guides Rey with her voice.

“Empty your mind,” she urges, her voice smooth and neutral. “You are a shell, a vessel for another soul. Someone is calling out to you for help. Feel them. Be them. Find them.”

“But Master Luke-“

“Empty your mind.”

Rey closes her mouth and concentrates on the General’s words. Her body is still pulsating with panic but instead of fighting it she grasps it, emptying her mind until the anxiety seeps in, filling every crack and crevice of her being with someone else’s pain.

She opens her eyes, and the council chamber is gone.

Leia’s voice floats through her head, ghostly and ethereal. “You’re there. Look around you. What do you see?”

Rey raises her head and surveys the scene. It’s small, cramped, the cockpit of some sort of ship she’s not familiar with. She feels an extra twinge of anxiety as she overlooks the space, and she recognizes it as claustrophobia.

“I’m in a shuttle,” she describes out loud. “A single-man shuttle. It’s dark and small, and I don’t like it. That’s part of the panic. I can’t move; I feel trapped.”

Leia tsks. “You’re claustrophobic?”

“Yes. I want to escape. Someone has found me, and I can’t hide.”

“So you were hiding?” Leia’s voice is tinged with barely-repressed excitement. “Who are you hiding from?”

Rey concentrates, letting the stranger’s emotions flood through her as she combs through the rush of emotions, places, smells, tastes, faces, until one sticks.

“Master Luke.” Her heart pounds painfully in her chest. “And me.”

She can see it now, feel it now, understand where she in and who she is. The dark metal frame of a TIE fighter’s cockpit become recognisable and she notices now the peculiar tint that colours her frame of vision, as if she’s wearing glasses or goggles.

Or a mask.

The stranger flares with rage and she empties her mind again, of him this time, letting the panic course through her veins until she can shut it off with a swift mental block.

“It’s Kylo Ren,” she breathes. “And they’ve found him.”

*

Finn squints through the gunner’s targeting scope, his eyes combing the empty space in front of him. “I don’t know, Master Luke,” he calls back up to the cockpit. “I don’t see anyone.”

“ _Negative here too_ ,” Poe’s staticky voice crackles through the comm. “ _Visual is coming up clear_.”

“I know it seems that was, but I felt something. A disturbance in the Force.”

Luke closes his eyes and concentrates until he feels it again. A ripple. “There’s something trying to hide behind the third moon of Hoth!”

Snap jumps to it first, piloting his X-Wing around the curve of the moon, just out of sight. “ _Seems goo-HOLY SHIT!_ ”

Luke’s voice cracks as he chokes out, “Snap, no-“

A shockwave rattles across the ship’s path, jolting the _Falcon_ and the remaining X-Wing. Finn winces, shielding himself with a raised arm as his seat swings wildly back and forth. His knuckles are pale, gripping the blaster handle for dear life.

“Hold your position, Poe,” Luke yells across the comm.

“ _But Snap_!”

“Holt your position.” Luke grits his teeth, his fingers tense on the navigational controls. “Do not engage.”

Suddenly a flicker of blue emerges from the dark side of the moon. It looks like lightening, but is writhing and frothing like a living being, each jagged bolt reaching like fingers across its empty path. At its core is a swirling wormhole, its depths a mass of raw electricity. It morphs then grows, with more and more tendrils reaching out, distorting the edges of space in its wake.

“Poe, get in close to me,” Luke commands. “I’m going to try and shield us.”

The Jedi Master rests his hands on the armrests of the pilot’s seat and empties his mind. He sees himself, sees Finn, sees the _Falcon_ and Poe’s X-Wing. He stretches his consciousness over them, warping their existence just in time for the Force Storm to wash over them. It feels like a small tug at the navel, strange and unsettling, but not dangerous.

“Whew.” Finn breathes a sigh of relieve once the storm passes. “Poe, you okay?”

“ _Still here buddy_.” Poe’s voice is tinged with worry. “ _Where’s Snap_?”

“Mr. Wexley was in the wake of the storm,” Luke says. “He was killed instantly when his ship disintegrated.” Barely taking a beat for mourning, he barks out an order. “Poe, circle around to the dark side of the moon.”

Poe’s hesitation is palpable even over the radio. “ _But Master Luke_...”

“The enemy will be stunned from expending that much effort,” he explains. “He won’t be expecting us.”

Finn’s eyes bug out with surprise. “Someone made that _thing_?”

Luke takes in a deep breath and nods. “No just someone. Kylo Ren. He’s been hiding from us.”

With practiced ease, he manoeuvres the _Falcon_ behind Poe around the curvature of the moon, where Ren’s TIE fighter is waiting, just as he said. The fighter is adrift, it’s engines fried by the storm, and Luke can barely detect their enemy’s Force signature flickering within.

“ _Son of a- permission to open fire, sir_?”

“Go ahead Poe. You too Finn, but keep in mind that we need to take him alive.” His brow furrows. “He’s barely holding on as it is.”

There’s no sign of Snap’s X-Wing. The only trace of his existence is a flap of orange fabric from his flight suit drifting aimlessly through the expanse of space.

*

The base is abuzz with activity as soon as Poe and the _Falcon_ are within range. Rey runs down the corridor to the landing bay with Leia, eager for news. Luke had been cagey on vague over the comm, only letting the council know that they had something big, but the tiny throbbing pulse the back of her mind makes the situation more clear than Luke’s words ever could.

Kylo Ren is hurt. Very, very seriously injured. She had felt him flare up with almost insurmountable pain several hours earlier. Even through the bond, or whatever it is, muted the intensity, it still brought Rey to her knees, her fingers twitching with aftershocks long after the pain dissipated.

She hasn’t felt much since then, and the absence of him scares her almost more than the anguish. She feels incomplete, like someone’s gone into her brain and wiped all of the information there, leaving her a hollow shell of how she used to feel. It’s strange; yesterday she wouldn’t have even blinked at the idea of Kylo Ren being blasted off the edge of the galaxy, but now the idea that she may have to live alone with her thoughts is uncannily terrifying.

“It could be fine,” Leia reassures her as they head to the bay. The older woman’s voice is warm and calm, unlike the icy bustle of the station. “You had never felt him before, right? Maybe he’s just hiding again.”

“No, it’s different.” Rey struggles to find the words. “Before I didn’t notice because he was blocking himself. It was like he had built a wall between us, so I was only aware of myself, just like it used to be. I know this because now...now it just feels like the wall is gone, but I’m reaching into a void. He’s barely there at all.”

They’ve had almost no time to investigate this so called bond, but she speaks with confidence nonetheless. “Have you ever felt something like that? That emptiness?”

Leia face falls. “Yes. Every day, since Han died.”

The hangar is already swarming with personnel when they arrive. Poe’s X-Wing has just landed, and both he and BB-8 are waiting expectantly as the _Falcon_ makes its strangely jerky and jittery descent.

“Finn’s driving,” he explains when Rey and Leia approach. “Luke’s in the hold with the prisoner.”

“How is he? Luke, I mean,” Leia clarifies.

“As fine as can be expected. He saved my and Finn’s asses back there.”

Rey frowns when she looks around the hanger for the missing X-Wing. “And Snap?”

Poe’s eyes go dark. “The bastard got him before we could react.”

The _Falcon_ ’s gangplank opens with a hiss of air and Finn barrels out like a bat out of hell. He grins when he sees Rey, running over to fling himself into her arms.

“Did you see that?” He pulls away and stares her in the eyes. His face looks tired, his excitement fuelled by pure adrenaline at this point. “I landed that old bucket of bolts single handedly!”

She laughs at his pride. “I did see that! I’m so prou-“

The world shifts and Rey catches her breath, pain and anger flooding her senses. She staggers, eyes rolling back in her head as wave after wave of nausea and anxiety wash over her.

Finn and Poe both lunge forward to grab her as her legs give out and she tumbles towards the ground.

“Rey? REY!”

It’s too much, too soon. She feels like her eyes are about to burst out of her sockets from the pressure, from the bubbling throb of cramping pain threatening to split her head in two. Leia kneels forward to cradle her lolling head. Rey’s eyes open and, just for a flash, the older woman swears they’ve gone chocolate brown.

“ _M-mama_?” Rey moans. “ _Mama, help me. It hurts_.”

“Ben?” Leia breathes. Poe stares at her like she’s gone insane.

“What the hell is going on?” he yells as he hoists Rey up by slinging his forearms arms under her armpits. “A little help here!”

Finn kneels down next to Leia, his hands gripping Rey’s shoulders. “Come on Rey, come back to us. Come on, Peanut.” His voice is strained, frantic. “You’re alright, you’re fine...Rey, what’s happening? What happened to you?”

There’s a loud, crunching BANG from inside the _Falcon_ , and Rey’s body jolts. Her head rolls back and a trickle of scarlet blood dribbles from her nostril.

Finn looks around the hanger wildly, searching for someone, anyone who can help, but they’re all running past, back up the _Falcon_ ’s gangplank. Rey’s groans of pain are drowned out by the crashing, banging of equipment, screams, and yells.

“He’s up, he’s up!” one of the medics announces as he rushes back down the gangplank and cowers behind a shipping container. Finn rips his gaze from Rey’s anguished face and stares up. His eyes go wide.

It’s Kylo Ren, his clothing tattered and ragged, blood dribbling down his body and pooling on the floor beneath him. He raises his arms and screams, ripping an identical shriek of anguish from Rey’s throat as the air around them vibrates.

Poe almost drops her thrashing body in shock as every vessel in the hanger, from escape pod to X-Wing suddenly rises up from the ground and levitates at least ten feet in the air. Leia wraps her arms around herself and cowers while Finn lets out his own yell of rage, draws his blaster, and charges towards the rogue prisoner with his weapon drawn. He barely gets two feet before Ren sends him flying back with a flick of the Force.

“NOOOOOOO...” Rey’s voice is raw, animalistic, her fingers clenching and clawing as she struggles for control. “ _Get. Out. Of. My._ HEAD!”

Kylo Ren lets out an equally feral howl and extends his gloved hand towards her, as if he could claim hold of her mind by merely clenching his fist. She groans in response.

“BEN!”

There’s a deafening crash, then another person stumbles out of the _Falcon._

“Luke,” Leia sighs with relief, one eye still on Rey’s convulsing form. “You can do it, Luke.”

The Jedi Master raises his shaking arm at Kylo Ren. “Ben,” he repeats, calmer now, his robed form trembling but strong. “Ben, it’s time to sleep.”

He stumbles to his knees, but even the full force of Luke’s will is not enough to keep Kylo Ren down for long. Dragging his dark robes on the hanger floor, he crawls, mask hissing with the effort, inching his way closer and closer to where Rey is huddled.

There’s sparks flying, and people yelling, and officers running around putting out fires and trying, without success, to subdue their unwelcome visitor, but above all of the commotion there’s still the sensation of him in the back of her mind, taking hold of her and sapping all of her strength to fuel his rage. She tries to stop him, throttle his hold on her, but he’s running on pure adrenaline now, and it’s just too overwhelming, _too much-_

“REY!” Luke screams. “Rey, hold on!”

“I can’t,” she moans, her voice straining with effort. “He’s too strong, I can’t-“

“Rey.” Leia grabs her by the shoulders and shakes once, twice. Rey blinks, her breath coming in haggard pants. “Picture a door.”

“I-“

“Picture a door,” the General commands.

Rey winces and strains, her body shaking with the effort, and then finally she groans out, “I see it. I see a door.”

“Describe it.”

“Nnnngh, it’s tall, dark. Made of wood and durasteel. It’s open, and there’s only empty blackness on the other side.”

Leia nods encouragingly, but her face is still drawn and tense. “Perfect. You’re doing a good job Rey.”

The young padawan takes a couple more calming breaths even as she hears the thump of Kylo Ren’s knees on the floor, dragging closer and closer. “It’s holding steady. I can hold it here, and he can’t see it yet.”

“Okay,” Leia says, her voice as smooth as Corellian brandy. “I need you to focus on the door. Hold one hand on the frame if it helps, while you open yourself up to his thoughts.”

Rey goes tense. “But I can’t! I can’t, it’s too much.”

“I know it is, so you’re going to take all of him, everything that doesn’t belong, and throw it into that doorway. It sounds like a lot, but I have faith in you. It’ll be over fast, Rey, I promise.”

Rey takes in a final breath, then bares down and concentrates on her mind space, releasing her hold on Luke, Leia, Finn, Poe, and whatever chaos is brewing in the hangar. Everything coalesces; she sees the door more vividly than before, stark and alone in the sandy landscape.

She jolts with surprise when she hears crunching footsteps behind her. Instinctively, she reaches for her lightsaber, but her back is bare of any weapons and her waist devoid of blasters.

“What are you doing here?”

It’s him, mask and all, his voice harsh and distorted through the modulator, his clothing still whole and stark black, unlike the ragged, bloody mess she saw in the hangar. He’s posturing, but his threats are toothless since she can tell that he’s also unarmed.

“What am I doing here?” She frowns at him, her eyes narrowing. “This is my mind! I should be asking you the same question.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Yet here we are.” Rey stands tall on the sand dune with one had resting on the cold durasteel door frame.

Kylo Ren shakes his head, his mask rustling against his rough spun hood. “You’re already too late. As you waste your time clambering through my mind, I’ve already tapped your power to its full potential. You can spend as much time as you want in here; once you leave, you’re mine.”

She glares at him. “I’m not your battery.”

He chuckles. “It would seem that you are.”

“We’ll agree to disagree.”

Crossing his arms in front of him, he tilts his head and surveys the door frame. “I see. This was my mother’s doing.” She narrows her eyes at him and he chuckles again. “The bond goes both ways, you know. I have access to your secrets just like you have access to mine. Or at least you would, if I was not blocking you.”

“Oh, well good for you,” Rey spits.

Still, he speaks about this bond with authority, no waver of uncertainty in his voice. She frowns. “How long have you known about this- this connection?”

“You’re trying to distract me.”

“Is it working?”

The mask is as expressionless as ever, but she can swear she senses a hint of amusement. “No, but I’ll answer just the same. I first felt it when I questioned you on the _Finalizer_.”

“When you interrogated me.”

He gives an offhand shrug. “When you pushed back, I felt our minds connect in a way I’ve never felt before and, even when you retreated, we didn’t fully disconnect. My suspicions were confirmed when you duelled me with my grandfather’s lightsaber. You were connected in some way to my skills and my training; you could never have beaten me otherwise.”

“Ha.” She folds her arms in front of her. “You just can’t accept that I was better than you.”

“Hardly, and don’t even delude yourself thinking that. It’s absurd that you would even entertain the idea that a former Jedi apprentice and Master of the Knights of Ren would be beaten in lightsaber combat by a nobody from-“ He cocks his head. “- _where_ was it?”

“Jakku,” she spits.

“Jakku.” He says the name like a curse. “You did admirably though, I can admit that. It’s clear that you are strong with the Force.”

A gust of wind rushes through the mind space, sending a spray of sand up into the air. Rey wrinkles her nose at the familiar sensation of grit scratching her bare skin. “Why here?” she wonders. “This must by my mind then, not yours.”

Kylo Ren seems pleased that she’s willing to engage him in conversation while their physical bodies are still caught in chaos. Clearing his throat, he takes a step closer and explains, “This environment is one that both of our minds are comfortable in. A common ground, if you will. You, because of your time on Jakku, and me because-“

He catches himself, more details lingering on the tip of his tongue. Rey’s eyes widen, lingering on a spot just over his shoulder.

“This is Tatooine,” she breathes. “Master Luke told me about the suns.”

“What suns-?” He tenses, then whirls around to face the blinding glare of the twin suns blazing over the horizon, orange and red. “No,” he chokes, the panic in his voice leaking through his modulator. “This can’t be possible.”

The environment shifts slightly, the fine Jakku sand darkening to the coarse grit of Tatooine. To anyone else it would be negligent change, but to Rey, who was raised in a desert wasteland, it’s as apparent as the sky changing colour. The air shifts too; it’s somehow drier and itchier, and she can hear the wail of some sort of foreign creature off in the distance.

Kylo Ren’s gloved fists clench as he reaches for a lightsaber that’s not there. “Sand people.”

It’s still a desert, but somehow it’s unfamiliar, too strange and dark even under the glare of the twin suns. There’s an ominous presence lurking in the shadows that seems to whisper to her, hissing secrets and temptations that are too abstract to grasp, at least at this point. Curious, she focuses, and the whispers become louder, thundering against her skull like the swirling winds around her.

“Don’t!” Kylo yells out. “Don’t pull him closer!”

"Pull who closer?” she shouts back. The winds gusts again and picks up even more, growing into a full gale that whips clouds of sandy shrapnel around their faces. Coughing, she shields her eyes with her arm as she looks around for shelter, but there’s nothing. Only the durasteel door frame that seems to be moving farther and farther away with every passing second.

“Kylo, STOP!” she screams. She doesn’t know how or why, but her gut just knows that this storm has something to do with her reluctant companion. Her suspicions are confirmed when he lets out a broken yell, clutching his head in his hands, and everything stops.

Aside from the sand in her clothes and her hair, it’s like nothing even happened. The doorframe is still farther away, and the environment is still distinctly more Tatooine than Jakku, but the stillness has returned, along with the ominous voice.

A wheezing whine indicates that something’s not quite right with Kylo Ren’s mask. He groans, and reaches up to release the clasps. With a pneumatic hiss, the mechanism disengages, and he flings it away as soon as he is able. He looks awful; his eyes bloodshot and skin patchy, and she can see that everything so far on this weird plane of existence has been a lie, at least on his part. He’s tired, tortured, and almost completely worn down.

“Now are you happy?” he says raggedly. A thin trickle of blood runs from his nostril, matching hers from before. He shudders and wipes it away with a gloved hand.

Rey allocates some of her focus to her physical body, gleaning clues about the actual state of things on the station. Corporeal Kylo is still struggling against Luke’s psychic restraint even as he flings escape pods and storage containers about. Finn, Leia, and Poe are sheltered for now, thank goodness, and she’s with them too, bundled up in Poe’s arms. They’re still safe.

“Not yet,” she replies, focusing back on the mental plane. “You’re so stubborn. Just can’t seem to know when to quit.”

“It’s foolish for you to try and force me,” he hisses, his dark eyes narrowed with determination. “I have so much I could give you, so many things I could teach you if you would just be willing to listen.”

“Not interested.” She focuses on the bond and pulls, as if she were a participant in the galaxy’s most absurd game of tug of war. He winces and, now that his face is free from its confinement, she can tell the effect that she’s having on him, breaking down his barriers so she can just slither inside and-

It’s only a brief moment that she can read him like a book, thoughts catalogued for perusal, then she’s overwhelmed by a flood of images, sensations, tastes, smells, _everything_ in his mind, every cherished memory and offhand musing, until she feels like her brain is going to explode.

He’s there too, just a chuckle in the back of her mind. This is his last ditch effort to keep her out, to force her out with sheer volume and will, but it’s not going to be that easy. She grasps mental footholds, formative thoughts, clinging to them as she fights to keep above the flood of useless junk that threatens to push her over the edge of anxiety.

_Warm, brown fur, closeness, hugging, the scent of trees and engine grease as he-_

_Rich pastry and a rush of sweet syrup as a woman sings to him with a low voi-_

_Bright sparks from a welding torch flying through the air as he fashions the casing for his kyber cry-_

_The scent of burning flesh and sting of snowflakes as he presses himself against her in a flash of violet li-_

_A twisted gut, humiliation, pain, the gaze of a withered old man as the stars twinkle through the win-_

“NO!”

Kylo Ren tries to pull free, tries to stem the tide that he’s sent tumbling in her direction, however Rey is quicker, and latches onto the memory of Snoke and everything that comes with it. She sees lacquered black navigational displays, unfamiliar star systems, names, faces, lists, so _much_.

The sands around them shift and swirl in whirl of colour until their surroundings resettle into the bridge of a ship. The lines of the vessel are cold and severe and unmistakably belong to something designed by the First Order. Kylo clutches his head in his grasping fingers, blood now flowing freely from his nose as he leans against the durasteel doorframe for support.  “Stop,” he commands, but his voice is cracked and feeble. “You don’t belong here. This doesn’t belong to you.”

Rey barely notices his distress. She’s already at the closest console, fingers flying across the display. Her heart skips a beat when she sees the names of the files: _Schematics, Codes and Frequencies, Maps, Persons of Interest._

She taps on the last one, and gasps when she sees her name glowing at the top of the list. It’s so tempting to open it, to see everything this homicidal maniac has ever thought about her, but that not what she’s here for, not yet. She scrolls down the list and has to resist a grin when she sees it.

_Snoke._

The bridge rumbles around her, hard enough that she feels her organs shake. A delicate spiderweb of cracks trails across the display and the lights around her start to flicker. Rey looks up and sees him, Kylo Ren, hands gripping either side of the doorframe as his body is balanced precariously at the edge of the portal. Instantly, she darts up and runs towards him as the floor beneath her crumbles.

Just like it did that fateful night before, with a mighty groan the ground cleaves in two between them, bursting forth a gust of steam that almost melts off Rey’s face. She skids to a stop, barely able to make out his shaking form through the mist.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she yells over the rumble.

He doesn’t even look back. “Admit it,” he answers. “I’m just giving you what you wanted in the first place.”

Then he lets go, the doorframe slipping from his fingertips, and all Rey sees is the flutter of his black cloak before he, and the crumbling ship around her, dissolve into an endless inky blackness.


End file.
